The Trinity – A gentle commendation

THE TRINITY – A GENTLE COMMENDATION

PROF. ADRIAN THATCHER

ABSTRACT

The doctrine of the Trinity gives Christians licence to say who and what God is, with the proviso that whatever might be God cannot be captured directly in language. In a gentle commendation of this doctrine, I am motivated more by the modern battle for gender equality than by ancient metaphysical speculation. I observe that in modern discussions of gender there has been a deployment of a range of concepts – person, relation, individual, identity, difference, equality, diversity (and for Christians the additional concepts of communion and love). But these concepts are shifting and contested. Is there a transcending source or ultimate configuration of reality in which the hope expressed by the use of these concepts finds its fulfilment? I will argue there is: the Trinity is the fulfilment of that hope.

Keywords: ATHANASIAN CREED: COMMUNION: DIFFERENCE: EQUALITY: GENDER: LOVE: PERSONS: TRINITY